BRATTLEBORO, Vt. – In a two-part course held on March 1 and 8, Peter Yost, one of the founders of Sustainable Energy Outreach Network, delivered SEON’s signature course, “Basics of High Performance Building.” 24 building professionals attended the course held at the Windham Regional Career Center, including members from ten high performance building contracting companies, an architectural company and a real estate company: Duane Case, Earthshare Construction, GPI Construction, Snowdog Construction, Unity Home Technologies, Grendel Productions,Mindel & Morse Builders, Appletree Builders, Mathes/Hulme Builders, Sustainable Design LLC,Vermont Natural Homes, Berkley and Veller Greenwood Country Realtors.
Many in the building community pitched in to make this course a success. Additional thanks go to Maribeth Cornell, Adult Education Coordinator at the Windham Regional Career Center; John DiMatteo, Instructor of Architecture & Construction at WRCC; the maintenance staff at WRCC; GPI Construction for use of one of their projects; Jon Saccoccio of JAS Workshop for providing an architect’s perspective of construction documents; our regional builders for support of this program; and certainly Peter Yost, of Building-Wright, for his exceptional delivery of this complicated subject matter. Subsidy for the tuition was provided by the Vermont Community Foundation.
We have reached a turning point for the residential building community. This type of knowledge once rested solely with the owner, but now business owners are expecting their carpenters, drafts people, and agents to understand and apply the fundamental principles of high performance construction. This includes managing air, heat, and moisture in a building. It has become necessary for people holding positions throughout the field to understand these principles, and in addition to business owners and designers, it is important for the people doing the physical work to be educated in high performance building. Continuous learning and professional development are no longer optional for these businesses.
This training is a major step for businesses and homeowners in our region. We are achieving a higher level of expertise with new and retrofit construction, and as we continue to educate the field, the public can be reassured there are businesses for hire that are committed to the highest standards of construction.
The course, “Basics of High Performance Building,” is the foundation course in SEON’s designation of Level I High Performance Builder Certification. Based on its success locally, it is SEON’s intention to deliver this course and the certification program to other regions of the state.